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creamy eggplant linguine with roasted cashew & sundried tomato pesto

An eggplant walks into a bar… and yeah, not really sure where I was going with that. BUT, I do know that eggplant and onions make a lovely combination. And if cashews and sundried tomatoes are invited to the party, it’s a downright taste orgy.

Sautéed eggplant ingredients:

1 large eggplant, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes

3 small yellow onions, diced

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 container veggie broth/stock

4 tsp salt (2 tsp for boiling linguine water; 2 tsp for eggplant)

Sautéed eggplant directions: In a large skillet, heat olive oil on medium high heat. Add the onions and sauté until golden brown. Add the garlic and cook until golden brown as well. Add some of the veggie stock until the consistency is soup-y. Then, add in the cubed eggplant. Sauté the eggplant, onions and garlic for about 20 minutes. Continue to add in the veggie stock; the eggplant absorbs a lot of the liquid then releases it when it cooks to a softer texture. Don’t over-oil or over-broth the eggplant mixture – this can ruin the mixture! Once the eggplant is cooked to a soft texture, use a hand masher tool to smush the eggplant to a chunky paste-like consistency. Continue to cook on a medium low heat.

Roasted cashew & sundried tomato pesto ingredients:

3 cups roasted/salted cashews

1 cup sundried tomatoes

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp salt

1 large bunch fresh basil leafs

enough veggie stock to cover the cashews/tomatoes during boiling process (you can use water if you don’t have any broth on hand. The broth just adds more flavor than water)

Roasted cashew & sundried tomato pesto directions: In a small pot, bring veggie stock, or water, cashews and sundried tomatoes to a boil. Boil for at least 10 – 15 minutes on high heat. Remove from heat and set aside to cool before blending. After cooled to a warm temperature, blend the cashew/sundried tomato/stock mixture in a food processor or blender. Add the oil, fresh basil and spices, and continue to blend until creamy. Once the texture is smooth like velvet, add the pesto concoction to the smashed eggplant. Allow everything to mix evenly and marry. You will notice that the sauce is creamy from the cashews with a subtle sweet flavor from the eggplant and sundried tomatoes. Continue to simmer the sauce on low heat.

Other ingredients:

1 box organic linguine pasta

Pasta directions: Bring the water and salt to a boil on high heat in a large pot. Add the pasta and cook the pasta according to the “al dente” directions on the box. Drain and add the pasta to a cold water bath, still in colander.

You can either add your pasta to your sauce or plate the pasta and then top with the sauce. We had more of the creamy eggplant pesto sauce than pasta, so we plated the pasta first and added our sauce amount preference. This is by far one of my favorite recipes that we’ve collaborated on. The eggplant sauce was semi-sweet and 100% delicious!